LangleyAdvance
Fire & Food pg A12
Your community newspaper since 1931
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Your source for local sports, news, weather, and entertainment: www.langleyadvance.com
Audited circulation: 41,100 – 32 pages
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Daniel Nuessler, Grade 9, and Grade 10 student Kody Ashdown from Apex Secondary helped out at the Big-R Pumpkin Patch this past weekend. The Rotary Club of Langley held its first fall fair and plans to make it an annual event based on its success. Most popular were the hayrides but there was also pumpkin sales, facepainting by Apex students, carnival games, a plant sale, a petting zoo, and treats. Proceeds will go to the Langley School Foundation.
Youth
Street teens given safe haven Teenagers with nowhere else to go will find a warm reception at the Beat the Streets Centre in Aldergrove. by Matthew Claxton mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
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Months of preparations and behind the scenes work have come to fruition with the opening of Langley’s first centre to aid homeless teenagers. Beat the Streets is a drop-in facility on 272nd Street, just north of Fraser Highway in downtown Aldergrove. A partnership between several community groups, the new centre will provide a safe space where teenagers who are at risk of, or actually living on the streets, can find a safe haven. Teenaged homelessness often doesn’t look like the familiar adult version, said Lynne Topham, with Aldergrove Neighbourhood Services. “Maybe they’re couch-surfing with friends, maybe they’re living in garages,” she said. While they may not be living on the streets, they often can’t go home.
Matthew Claxton/Langley Advance
Dignitaries who officially opened the Beat the Streets drop in centre were, left to right, Township Councillor Charlie Fox, Len Murdoch of Centrepoint Community Services, Mayor Rick Green, and Stan Duckworth with FAYSS. The reasons for that can vary widely, from family breakdown to poverty, from drug
addiction to abuse. “A lot of them don’t want to be in a foster care situation,” Topham said. They’re often forced to migrate to larger urban centres like Vancouver, where there are more services for them. Even in Langley, the Gateway of Hope shelter is for adults only. While Beat the Streets can’t offer them overnight shelter, the staff and volunteers there will offer meals, hot showers, clothing, computers to use, and access to support staff. If the kids need to get off the streets for a night, staff can connect them with outreach workers in Abbotsford or Surrey. If they want to go home, the centre can help work to reconcile them with their families. Loren Roberts, a program co-ordinator for the shelter, said there will be programming Wednesdays through Fridays, with expansion to other days thanks to other volunteers and groups coming on board the project. Some of the programs, including a clothing repair service, have already started. Healthy living classes, teaching the kids how to eat healthy, will be coming up soon. There will also be fun stuff to keep the kids coming back, such as DJ classes, Roberts said.